With over 100,000 patients, Florida's medical marijuana program is proving to be one of the larger markets in the United States. One of the biggest hurdles to patient accessibility however was the fact that medical marijuana usage was limited to just vaping, edibles, oils, sprays and tinctures. 

Thanks to Leon County circuit court Judge Karen Gievers, that's all about to change. Last Tuesday, she upheld her decision from May 25th that the Florida's rule banning smokeable cannabis is unconstitutional. This is the first domino in what will be a long process to determine the rules for rolling out smokeable marijuana products.

Out of hundreds of publicly-traded marijuana stocks, there's three in particular that stand to gain from this change given the fact that they own licenses down in the Sunshine State. 

In alphabetical order, here's 3 cannabis companies that could gain tremendously from the ban on smokeable medical marijuana being lifted in Florida:

iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (CSE:IAN) (ITHUF)

iAnthus owns and operates licensed cannabis cultivation, processing and dispensary facilities throughout the United States. With a sizeable portion of the company's recent $50 million USD investment from Gotham Green Partners going towards operations in Florida, the company is clearly focused on gaining market share in the state. 

iAnthus' 100% owned subsidiary, GrowHealthy Holdings, LLC became licensed on July 5, 2017 to cultivate, process, transport, and dispense full-strength medical cannabis as one of only thirteen Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers under Florida's Medical Use of Marijuana Act passed in June 2017.

GrowHealthy's cannabis cultivation has already commenced with phase one of its 200,000 square foot indoor cultivation facility. With thousands of plants under cultivation, plant and inventory alone is valued in the millions.  

They currently offer vape cartridges, tinctures, and oral dispensing syringes to patients via its delivery program, but expect to open dispensaries in West Palm Beach, Tampa and Orlando, beginning in Q3 2018. This will help the company carve out territory in three of Florida’s largest metro areas.

Liberty Health Sciences Inc. (CSE:LHS) (LHSIF)

Liberty Health Sciences is an investor and operator in the U.S. medical cannabis market, aggressively pursuing opportunities in Florida as well as Massachusetts and beyond. With the recent opening of its 4th medical marijuana dispensary in Florida, the company has a noteworthy head-start in the state.  

Not only does Liberty have an exclusive Management Agreement with Chestnut Hill Tree Farm LLC, a Florida license-holder, but the company also has a major partnership with Aphria Inc. (TSX:APH) (APHQF), a Canadian licensed producer.

With a 387-acre parcel of land in Gainesville, Florida, Liberty is situated with more than enough space to increase production. Just acquired back in January, the land included over 200,000 square feet of state-of-art greenhouses, head houses, tissue culture lab and processing facilities.

Liberty is retrofitting the facilities to include a 16,000-square-foot processing area that will be used for extraction and refining of cannabis oils, equipped to produce vape products including disposable pens, cartridges and pods. Liberty will continue to offer its other consumption forms such as capsules, tinctures and topicals. The expected capacity of 12,000 kg/year of high-quality cannabis will allow Liberty to keep up with Florida's existing demand, as well as growth going forward.

MedMen Enterprises Inc. (CSE:MMEN) (MTTPF) 

MedMen, a well recognized cannabis company with operations in California, Nevada and New York, is the most recent of the three companies to enter the public markets, as well as the most recent of the three companies to enter the Florida market.

With the company's recently signed definitive agreement to acquire dispensary and cultivation assets from Florida-based Treadwell Nursery, MedMen will acquire Treadwell Nursery’s cultivation facility situated on 5 acres in Eustis, Florida and the right to open 25 medical marijuana dispensaries in the Sunshine State.

Paying approximately $53 million USD in cash and common shares, MedMen's transaction shows how much a piece of the Florida pie is potentially worth.

Conclusion

With the Florida medical marijuana market on pace to break $1 billion by 2020, it's no wonder these companies are fighting to gain market share. With such a scarcity of licences in the state, just a few companies stand to gain unlike other states with a seemingly endless supply of licenses. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss an update.